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Saturday, May 11, 2013

Mixing up my Monday Nights

"When
life gets this confusing, sometimes there's only one thing to do, attend a
fabulous party."~ Carrie Bradshaw

One of the great things about Boston is that the neighborhoods are
always changing and something news is happening everyday. That can be said
about Downtown Crossing. Some of my earliest memories of the area are going to
see ‘The Enchanted Village’ at Jordan Marsh during the Christmas season as a
kid and I believe it was Barnes & Noble had one of the scariest escalator rides-
it was so steep, I swear I was going to fall right off. I also remember it not
being one of nicest looking areas around, and it seemed to go completely downhill
for quite a few years after.

Cut to today and you’ll find that
Downtown Crossing is completely getting a 180 degree makeover, new stores are
opening, apartment buildings are breaking ground and new restaurants are
popping up faster than a teenager with zits. I had read on Boston Magazine’s
Twitter post that they were hosting an event call “MixItUp Mondays”, where you
could go to any of the DTX’s restaurants and try one of their featured drinks
and order off a specialty priced menu. This caught my eye right away being that
it was very close to work and only being Mondays in February, it was too cold
to travel anyplace else in the city for what would otherwise be another boring
Monday night. After going to my first “MixItUp Monday” at 49 Social, I was
absolutely amazed how many incredible restaurants there were in the area- I had
to keep coming back.

A few weeks later Boston Magazine
gave an incentive to their “MixItUp Mondays” Campaign- mention where you are
having dinner on Monday via social media and get a chance to win free tickets
to the final spring bash!- oh, yeah, I had to get into this event. Well, after
many Mondays, a few Tuesdays and a Thursday, I got message via Twitter that I
had won a pair of tickets to their Spring Bash at the Ritz Carlton, I couldn't have been more excited (ask the people at work, they thought I was going
crazy!).

The night of the event I was all
set to go, I had my spring dress, spring makeup and a spring in my step, a
party at the Ritz Carlton, I felt like Cinderella, minus the glass shoes and
the prince.

The event was held in their 2nd
floor ballroom and as soon as I walked in, there was a dj playing, caterers
walking around with samples of sliders, scallops wrapped in bacon, AND open bar…done!
There was a TV setup with Dance Dance Revolution! for the attendees (had I been at home
in my pajamas, I would've been all over that, but me dancing in public is just
not pretty). The atmosphere was great,
the food absolutely delicious and the drinks, amazing!

Throughout the night, I would
pass by people at different tables to mingle and stop to have some more
delicious food. As I was passing by a table, a man had pulled me aside and said
“come join our table!” Although I never got his full name (or sadly, I may have
forgotten), he seemed to be key person to know since he was talking up a storm
to just about everyone. I met a great couple at our table who owned their own
moving company (Marathon Moving Company of Randolph), as well as, many other
amazing people who were all affiliated one way or another with the magazine.
Towards the end of the night and my 3rd drink going strong (can’t recall if it was the Pom-Pom Martini or
the Apple-Rosemary Martini, both just a wonderful as the first), I ran
into Darren Young, magician extraordinaire; I maybe a total sucker for magic
tricks, but Darren did an incredible job with his card magic, (I still even
have the Ace of Diamonds with my name on it for proof).

By the end of the night, I had some
incredible drinks, delicious food and met some amazing people. Its nights like
this, that I love being in the city.